Menendez: Efforts to reduce Sandy relief aid 'miserly'

Dec. 21, 2012

Written by

Malia Rulon Herman

@mrulon

WASHINGTON — As the Senate continued to move slowly on emergency aid for states damaged by Superstorm Sandy, a New Jersey lawmaker summoned key transportation officials to a hearing to illustrate the region’s critical need for federal help.

“To my friends who are fiscal hawks … I want to stress the importance of investing now so we don’t have to pay again the next time this happens,” Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez said at the hearing.” This is not just about a few states. This is about helping an entire nation. New York and New Jersey are critical economic engines for the nation, employing 10 percent of the nation’s workforce and accounting for 11 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product.”

Menendez, chairman of the Senate banking subcommittee on housing, transportation, and community development, was the only lawmaker present at the hearing, which took testimony from transportation officials from New York, New Jersey and the administration.

But Menendez said it was important to remind colleagues of the critical need for Sandy relief funding.

He called some GOP amendments to the Sandy aid package “miserly, to say the least, at a moment of national imperative.”

Senate Republicans have proposed cutting more than half of the $60.4 billion package in an attempt to address only immediate needs.

That proposal, from Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana, would provide only about $24 billion for storm-damage needs through the end of March.

It would include funding for the National Flood Insurance Program, which will run out of money Jan. 7, and money for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund. But it omits $13 billion for mitigation work aimed at preventing damage from future storms.

Senators spent much of Thursday paying tribute to Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who died Monday and lay in state at the Capitol. Senators also delivered farewell speeches to departing colleagues.

Menendez said some Republican senators believe the dollar estimates that officials in New York and New Jersey have given for recovery needs “are made up and pulled out of the sky and not necessary.”

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Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said his agency already has spent $200 million on repairs since Sandy.

“Those dollars are real. We are prepared to demonstrate every dollar,” he said. “None of our agencies are talking about a bridge to nowhere. We’re talking about restoring tunnels and bridges and train stations.”

Thomas Prendergast, president of New York City Transit, said his agency’s board has just approved a $2.5 billion bond measure to fund disaster repairs. Once it spends that amount, he said, it will be unable to generate its own funding.

“We will be forced to put off critical repair needs,” Prendergast said. “It would affect our ability to provide safe, reliable service on an ongoing basis.” He also said fare hikes could be an option.

Sandy destroyed coastal towns, flooded subway tunnels and knocked out power for millions in New York and New Jersey when its storm surge hit the Northeast coast on Oct. 29. More than 150,000 housing units experienced substantial flooding, forcing thousands of residents to seek temporary shelter. The region’s transportation network is still not yet fully operational.

NJ Transit Executive Director James Weinstein said restoration costs are expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars. Inaction by Congress would leave the system vulnerable, he said.

“If we didn’t get the money that we are asking for — or close to it — then we would not be able to make the repairs, and more importantly, the mitigation improvements,” he said. Weinstein said officials would then have to ask Congress for more money after the next storm washes away the repairs.

Peter Rogoff, federal transit administrator for the Department of Transportation, said the funding proposed by Republicans “would not even cover the recovery costs.”

“These are costs that in many cases have already been laid out,” he said, adding that the rate of spending on repairs is not sustainable. Without an infusion of federal dollars, “there is risk of serious service degradation to the public.”

It was unclear when the Senate might vote on the Sandy funding bill. A vote was expected Friday, but passage is not certain.